Hey friends - I'm so ready for our 2-week track-out that starts this Friday, but I'm already looking forward to the end of October when we will have our first Pumpkin Day!
We are actually going to have Pumpkin Week - all leading up to our exploration of pumpkins through hands-on activities on Thursday of that week.
Monday through Wednesday we will incorporate pumpkins into our language arts block through reading both fiction and non-fiction texts, and using graphic organizers to practice summarizing, finding the main idea, author's purpose, and more! There are also adjectives activities, writing prompts, and themed writing papers. I know we won't even begin to get to all of this!
Anchor Charts? I've got your covered! I've included clipart and directions on printing to size about how to make anchor charts like these!
Pumpkin activities and crafts will be a big part of our Pumpkin Day!
Pumpkin Diagram (labeling)
Life Cycle of a Pumpkin Craftivity
Pumpkin Facts Headband (not pictured below)
Roll-a-Pumpkin (not pictured below)
Pumpkin Tissue Paper outline and directions
Pumpkin Craft and Writing Paper
But pumpkins are not all about language arts, life cycles, and crafts - we've got to do some math with our pumpkins too! There are several graphing activities and even activities to go with a pumpkin taste-test! My kids are really excited about this - they were begging for pumpkin pie - something I didn't think they would want, but it'll be added to our parent-request list!
How do I ask parents for items - I use
Sign-Up Genius for all sorts of parent requests - sending in items, volunteering from home, etc. It's a great online resource that allows parents to easily sign up for items or things they would like to do associated with your classroom. Here is a sample of what our Sign-Up Genius for Pumpkin Day looks like:
The week prior to Pumpkin Day, we are going to "plant" pumpkin seeds in ziplock bags, hang them in our window (since we get a lot of sun) and wait for them to sprout! I've never done this, so I hope it works out well. Once their seed sprouts, they get to take it home and can plant it so they can grow their own pumpkin (in the far distant future - like next summer!).
On the afternoon of our Pumpkin Day, we are going to get elbow deep into our Pumpkin Investigation with this booklet. We are going to do all sorts of math and science activities in small groups with our pumpkins. Measuring our pumpkin, weighing it and comparing the weights of our pumpkins, doing a sink or float investigation, counting the seeds, and making pumpkin volcanoes! It's going to be a ton of fun!
Be sure to check it out in my TPT store!